News

EE (Everything Everywhere) will be launching the UK’s first 4G LTE network by the end of the year. The cities to get LTE by the end of 2012 are London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Derby, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and Southampton. This covers a third of the population and more areas will follow in 2013.

The new network will be called EE. Orange and T-Mobile tariffs will remain as they are for the time being. High street stores will rebrand as EE this year, which implies that Orange and T-Mobile tariffs are likely to be consolidated into the EE name at some point.

The launch will be supported by five handsets: Nokia Lumia 920, Nokia Lumia 820, HTC One XL (LTE version of One X), Huawei Ascend P1 LTE and Samsung Galaxy S III LTE. It’s expected that the iPhone 5 will also join this list.

EE will offer LTE mobile broadband with a Huawei USB dongle or MiFi device. This could be a real alternative to home broadband for some, depending on cost and whether LTE covers areas where fibre or a decent ADSL connection isn’t available. In addition, EE will offer a fixed line fibre product with an average 58.5Mbps. They will offer a discount to customers who take both products, as they do now with their ADSL and mobile packages.

It will be interesting to see what other products and services emerge from this new technology.

The iPhone 4S, launching October 14, features a dual core A5 processor, an 8 megapixel camera with 1080p video record, Siri advanced speech recognition and the new iOS 5 operating system. It’s available in black or white with 16GB, 32GB or 64GB memory. The dual-core A5 chip promises up to 2x faster performance and 7x faster graphics. The 8 megapixel camera can take exceptionally good photos. It can also record HD video at full 1080p resolution, with video stabilisation, and AirPlay Mirroring will allow wireless streaming to an Apple TV.

The new Siri voice controlled assistant lets you use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls and much more. Siri understands what you say, knows what you mean, and even talks back. For example you could say something like Tell my wife I’m running late, Remind me to call the vet, or Any good sandwich shops around here? And Siri will answer.

The new iOS 5 operating system has over 200 new features. The New Notification Centre shows missed calls, messages, calendar invitations, friend requests and more. The camera app can now be accessed quickly from the lock screen, it has grid lines, pinch-to-zoom and touch focus. Photos can be edited from the photo viewer, with crop, rotate, enhance and red eye removal. Other highlights to iOS 5 include iCloud, Twitter integration, iMessage and Reminders.

Orange and T-Mobile customers are now able to use either network. 30 million customers – the combined customer base of Orange and T-Mobile in the UK – are offered the opportunity to access both networks, enabling them to make calls and send texts in more places in the UK for no extra cost.

So if you’re on Orange your phone will pick up a T-Mobile signal if it doesn’t pick up an Orange signal, and vice versa. Charges stay the same, nothing will change, you’ll just get more network coverage.

Customers need to sign up at the Orange or T-Mobile web sites using either of the links below.

Orange clearly aims to delight their PAYG customers with a revamp of the animal tariffs and better value for all. The diversity of today’s PAYG customers has led to a wider range of needs and the animal tariffs include something for everyone.

The Racoon tariff is the most simple of the range and Orange have recently reduced the flat call rate from 15p to 12p per minute.

The Canary plan promotes itself to regular talkers and the existing 100 minutes of free evening and weekend calls has been matched with 100 free texts messages or photo messages, again for off peak use.

The Monkey tariff is youth orientated with 1000′s of free music tracks just waiting to be downloaded and topping up with £5 will now gift users a free daily internet pass and free text messages (a fair usage cap is in place).

If you have friends or relatives living overseas then the Camel tariff, with international calls starting from 5p per minute, will quickly become your best friend. Free international minutes to 50 countries are now to be given away with each top up, a £10 top up gives 60 minutes, £20 gives 120 minutes and finally £30 will give 240 minutes.

If you haven’t picked Orange yet for your PAYG provider, then these offers should surely tempt you. Pick up a Nokia 1661 for just 90p on Orange (that’s not a mistake) with free delivery.

Receive the new iPod nano free with almost any mobile phone on an 18 or 24 month contract. It’s a superb free gift to choose – for yourself or for someone else – and has been re-mixed for fingertips to enhance your music enjoyment. Multi-touch allows for tap and swipe operation whilst the motion sensor performs nifty tasks such as shake to shuffle music tracks.

Weighing only 21g and sporting a handy clip for attaching to a sleeve, jacket or bag the iPod nano is completely portable and the anodised aluminium body is highly fashionable.

The iPod nano also boasts colour co-ordinated wallpapers that look great on the 1.5 inch display (240×240 pixels) whilst album art and photos can be viewed with tap-to-zoom bringing into focus even the finest of details. Sounding as great as it looks the nano is highly intelligent and can provide a playlist with songs that go together by tapping the Genius icon when you hear a tune that you like.

The iPod range has always been a fitness fanatic’s best friend and the new nano is no exception. It’s easy to keep fit with the pedometer that provides daily step goals and your progress can be monitored via the Nike Website. If you need extra focus then the iPod nano can pause live FM radio broadcasts for up to 15 minutes.

The Apple iPod nano can provide 24 hours of non-stop music from one charge and with access to iTunes, now featuring a 30-second preview of tracks before you buy, the nano is practical, flexible and fashionable.

Sooner or later someone was going to challenge the way tariff pricing has been formulated and revolutionise the industry with a new and simplified pricing method that makes sense. So, it should be no surprise to most that it is the 3 network that has taken the initiative and created The One Plan.

The One Plan offers peace of mind and freedom of use by removing the so-called ‘unlimited packages’ that are capped with a fair usage policy that can often cripple users with large and unexpected bills. Instead, The One Plan brings a huge amount of clearly defined free usage that comprises of 1GB of data, 5000 text messages, 2000 minutes to any network any time and 5000 minutes for calling other mobiles on 3.

If you’re thinking about an iPhone 4 then you’ll be delighted to see a SIM only option with The One Plan at a low price of £25pm on a 12 month contract. Pick up a SIM free iPhone 4 direct from Apple for £499 and it works out cheaper than any of the deals available on Orange, O2 or Vodafone.

If you prefer a new phone on The One Plan then 24 month contracts are available. The cost of line rental depends on which phone you choose, it starts at £28 per month for phones such as the Nokia E63 or the LG Viewty GT. The HTC Desire is available for £35 per month.

The The One Plan has placed 3 at the forefront of the UK networks with probably the most attractive and easy to understand price plan that simply makes sense.